D&D General What are the “boring bits” to you?

[overgeeked]

I know everyone will have different answers, and that’s great, that’s the point.

When playing D&D (any edition), what are the boring bits you wish you could skip?

Try to be specific rather than general. If you don’t like combat, what parts of combat don’t you like? If you don’t like travel, what about travel don’t you like?

 

[SableWyvern]

I endeavour not to include unskippable boring bits in my games, whether D&D or otherwise.

I suppose certain kinds of prep, when I'm not feeling inspired, but I need to get something done, would count.

 

[DeviousQuail]

Measuring out distance. I appreciate that positioning affects combat, but the 5ft square makes it boring.
"How far is it to this door? 5, 10, 15, ..."
Yawn
"Am I close enough to counterspell? 60 feet is 12 squares. 1, 2, 3, ..."
Snooze
"It's 25 feet to the ladder and a 15 foot climb to the top. You can start climbing, but will need to Dash if you want to reach the top."
"What if I jump from here? 25^2 + 15^2 = 850 and the square root of that is 29.154..."
Zzz

 

[Incenjucar]

Waiting for people to make decisions.

 

[GrimCo]

Combat that turns into long, dragged out grind. Longest single combat encounter was almost 4 hours, with decent amount of 2-3 hour long encounters. That long one was designed poorly by the DM, he tried to balance PC power by beefing up monsters (double max HP). Others were in PF with group which liked summons, companions and raised undead and played with minis on the grid ( it was more like wargame than rpg).

 

[Lanefan]

To riff off @GrimCo :

Planning that turns into long, dragged out grind.

I've seen players take most of a session planning an attack on a group of monsters...meanwhile I-as-DM am sitting there, pretty safe in guessing that no matter what plan they finally decide on, at least one character is going to go off script in the first round and leave them all improvising anyway.

I've seen players take most of a session planning how to open a door.

As a player, I've long since developed the ability to switch off if something's going on in the game that doesn't interest and-or involve me; and what that "something" is can vary depending on my mood at the time. I just have to remain alert enough to be able to seamlessly jump back in if-when called upon.

 

[EzekielRaiden]

Non-roleplay shopping.*
Purely "attrition" traps.
Excessively "streamlined" (aka trivialized) combat.
Waiting around doing nothing because my character died.
Excessive time spent on logistics. Some is fine. Spending more than a quarter of most sessions on it is not.

*That is, "roleplay" shopping is when it's actually a process, with one or more real characters you actually interact with, and can persuade both through actually good argument points and through leveraging your character's strengths. That sort of shopping is actually fun, and can even be the start of a whole adventure. "Non-RP shopping" is just dull logistical BS you have to jump through otherwise you'll be slapped with dull logistical gotchas while you're out in the middle of nowhere.

 

[SableWyvern]

To riff off @GrimCo :

Planning that turns into long, dragged out grind.

I've seen players take most of a session planning an attack on a group of monsters...meanwhile I-as-DM am sitting there, pretty safe in guessing that no matter what plan they finally decide on, at least one character is going to go off script in the first round and leave them all improvising anyway.

I've seen players take most of a session planning how to open a door.

As a player, I've long since developed the ability to switch off if something's going on in the game that doesn't interest and-or involve me; and what that "something" is can vary depending on my mood at the time. I just have to remain alert enough to be able to seamlessly jump back in if-when called upon.

I'm not here to disagree as such -- we all like what we like, and that's ok. I just find different perspectives very interesting at times.

Last session, my players spent about ninety minutes discussing whether or not to release a succubus from a magic circle. Now, admittedly, I wasn't only watching/listening, I got to actually play the succubus from time to time as they engaged with her. But I still found their internal discussions and their reasoning fascinating. I quite enjoy just being able to relax and watch/listen to the players theorise and plan.

That said, unless there was some particularly compelling reason to do otherwise, I would almost certainly step in and speed things up in your "whole session for a door" example.

 

[Rystefn]

Crafting/shopping/economics. I came here to play a fantasy adventure game, not to watch you set up a quaint little craft shop. It might be your fantasy, but it's not an adventure.

 

[aco175]

I was able to play last weekend at a local convention and in one game the DM would describe each hit from an attack, each hit mind you and not just a killing blow or critical hit. It seemed to drag some and take longer than needed. I get describing some of the action and the back and forth, but a firebolt for 6 points of damage does not need 30 seconds of telling me how the bolt streaks through the air and sizzles into his shoulder.

Another thing would be tracking ammunition and food/water. Unless there is a reason like being stranded in a desert or some massive wilderness where there is no resupply, I can assume crossing off a few gold in a town would buy me some basics like arrows and food, clean the armor, sharpen the blade, patch the hole in the shirt, shave, etc... Like what some of the others say about roleplay, it is not bad, but there should be a reason. Maybe you roleplay with the smith when you go looking for new armor and he talks about a possible bad guy place or how the Duke is not from these parts and is not to be trusted.